A good day all around. I’m feeling about 75% there and thankful that I have more energy each and every day. You really don’t appreciate your health until you don’t have it anymore. In fact do you appreciate anything until its taken away? Its interesting how easy it is to become complacent. You adjust your lifestyle to your circumstances, financial, emotional, spiritual, then have a tendency to stop thinking about it. I think that is why its so mentally healthy to do a regular inventory of the things which you are thankful for. It grounds you in so many ways. I am very thankful for the things that I have.
I was so proud of my staff today. Im trying to instill so many production value aspects into them. I am very blessed to have the staff that I do have. Many of them are quite skilled and dedicated. One of the things I’ve been harping on them since I arrived have been deadlines. I’m trying to turn our company into an ultra-efficient production machine. One of the key was to do that is to hit deadlines. Now this is very close to my heart. In my entire career, I’ve never missed a deadline. I’ve come close a few times, once it was down to about 10 minutes, but I still hit it. This is a source of incredible pride for me. I’m trying to instill that same sense of pride and ownership in my staff. We had a deadline today for a major project of 9:30 AM this morning. My editor called me last night at 11:30 PM, talking about how the computer wasn’t working properly and he was tired. Perhaps I should have been there side by side leading by example. Nah…I’ve already paid my dues. I’ve spent plenty of overnighters to hit deadlines. So part of me wanted to show mercy and say, don’t worry about it, we’ll finish it later. But I just couldn’t. I roused Reji the IT wizard and had him go fix the problem. It’s not like Im being a cruel taskmaster. They had known about the deadline for a week and kept assuring me they’d hit it. So I just encouraged him. Then I think I went to bed.
When I woke up this morning, I was soooo proud. They stayed til 2:30 AM, but they got the project done, hit the deadline and did a great job on it. The client came in at 9:30, and was very very happy with the product. I kept effusing praise all day on the staff. I gave them all the afternoon off as it was well deserved. They took pride, they took ownership, and they got the job done. This is not my company, this is not Khalifa’s company, this is our company. If our company is successful then we all are successful. Circumstances like last night assure me that maybe my philosophy is getting through. Now, I say maybe because of another employee. Its not like this person misses deadlines, its more like when do they meet a deadline. That is going to take a lot more management. I have to become a teacher in this case. Overall, Im very happy with the staff and the progress we’ve made in the past 10 months. It feels like we are a different company altogether.
We had our positive living group tonight. I served Popeye’s chicken, I think that scared most of the people away. There were only four of us, but it was a very lively and spirited discussion. I love that. I think stirring the pot is good. I’m not sure where the seeds are planted, but I know there are a lot of seeds going out.
Thank you for your many prayers for my health. They are working. Please continue to pray for my reconciliation with my children. I did have a wonderful talk with Max last night. We’re buds. That’s a great feeling.
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